- NASA lost contact with Ingenuity on April 26, and helicopter contact was lost for 63 days.
- The helicopter landed out of range of the Perseverance probe, which enables communication with Earth.
- NASA is now announcing that the helicopter has finally made contact and made its 52nd successful flight.
After 63 days of excruciating silence, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first ever machine capable of powered and controlled flight on another planet, has finally made contact with control. NASA reported.
The signal marks Ingenuity’s 52nd successful flight to the Red Planet.
Ingenuity first launched in July 2020 with the Mars rover Perseverance. They landed on Mars for the first time on February 18, 2021. The two are still bonded on Earth, and the Ingenuity relies on the rover Perseverance for operations and permission to communicate with Earth.
Ingenuity’s latest flight, which lasted just over two minutes, was designed to reposition the helicopter to capture new images of the Martian surface for researchers. NASA announced that Ingenuity’s signal was lost on April 26 because of a hill separating the helicopter from the Perseverance spacecraft. On June 28, the rover finally crossed the hill, giving the helicopter the signal it needed to contact NASA controllers.
Experts at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., predicted that the hill would pose a problem. This isn’t the first time Ingenuity has run into communication problems.
Back in April, ATC unexpectedly lost contact with Ingenuity for six days, finding no signs of activity. It was the first time for the team to completely lose communication with the helicopter, and anxiety spread before the return. reported by space.com. But the next day, the helicopter made its 50th successful flight over the Red Planet.